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Liz LynneLiberal Democrat MEP for the West Midlands 1999-2012 |
MEP warns constituents of Spanish Lottery Scam
September 13, 2006 3:34 PM
County Lib Dem MEP Liz Lynne has warned residents about a cunning new scam which can con people out of thousands of pounds by telling them they have won more than half-a-million Euros in a Spanish lottery.
Liz, who received one of the letters herself, said:
"This is a complete fraud organised by dishonest and disgraceful criminals and people should be very careful to completely ignore these letters.
"They are very clever because the letters they send look official but if you do respond to them and give them personal details, you could find that money's taken from your account, your bank account emptied or worse your identity stolen."
"You have to ask yourself how you could have possibly won a competition that you haven't even entered. As with all these types of frauds, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is so if you do receive a letter like this, make sure you report it and then bin it."
"I will be writing to the European Commission asking them to look into what appears to be cross-border criminal activity"
Editor's Notes
The letter Liz received says she was one of eight winners sharing a €4,926,480 prize from the La Primitiva lottery in Spain - a genuine lottery. To claim the money however, she was told to send her banking details to a fax number in Spain along with a photocopy of identification.
Cases of people losing up to £57,000 through this scam have been reported in London and Lancashire.
For copies of the letter and enclosures Liz received please contact us.
To report a scam letter, call the Consumer Direct advice service on 08454 04 05 06.
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